Broadcast media, such as television and radio, generally transmit programming content to the public for free over wireless means. Thus, anyone with a device capable of receiving the broadcast signal, such as a television or radio, can watch or listen to the broadcast programming content. Similarly, cable television providers and cable or satellite radio providers often transmit broadcast programming to subscribers, some of whom would not otherwise be able to receive a wireless broadcast. For example, subscribers in Dallas can receive broadcast programming via a cable television provider in Dallas, from a broadcaster provider in Chicago, a location too distant from the subscriber for an ordinary broadcast signal to reach. Typically, cable television and satellite radio subscribers pay a fee to receive programming content.
Typical broadcast content often includes programming that the broadcast recipients can prefer to exclude or include, which will be described herein as, “content of interest” (COI). Examples of content of interest include news, traffic reports, stock market updates, advertising, violent programming, and sexual or adult situations. Previous methods to screen out content of interest have included blocking the content of interest by identifying specific transmission characteristics of the content of interest, such as a subtle tone transmitted prior to advertising, an increase in volume or loudness levels immediately preceding advertising, content blocks that are multiples of thirty-second duration, and other similar characteristics. In the particular case of advertising content, however, advertisers and/or broadcasters often change the easily recognizable characteristics of advertising content in order to avoid blockage. Additionally, broadcast content can be difficult to distinguish from content of interest, such as, for example, when a radio talk show host presents substantially advertising content in the same format as broadcast content, seamlessly transitioning from commentary to advertising and back again. Moreover, efforts to screen adult or violent content often require an entire program to be blocked, rather than only the objectionable or content of interest components of the program.
Therefore, there is a need for a method and/or apparatus for selectively blocking or screening content of interest that addresses at least some of the problems associated with conventional methods and apparatuses.